---
title: Bluespotted Wrasse (Anampses caeruleopunctatus)
scientific_name: Anampses caeruleopunctatus
common_name: Bluespotted Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-01-01T11:32:04.595Z
updated: 2026-08-20T10:25:39.377Z
tags: Bluespotted Wrasse, Anampses caeruleopunctatus, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/bluespotted-wrasse
---

# Bluespotted Wrasse (*Anampses caeruleopunctatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** 42 cm
- **Depth:** 3-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Exposed reef and surge-swept rock
- **Reproduction:** Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- large wrasse, far bigger than any other in its genus
- each scale carrying a single small blue spot
- big males with a broad pale vertical bar behind the head and a green head
- up to 42 cm

It is four times the size it has any business being. The genus is a set of small, neat, twenty-centimeter fish that pick single animals off rubble with tweezer teeth, and this one reaches forty-two centimeters, which makes it a heavy fish by wrasse standards and by far the largest of its kind.

Growing that big changed what it can do. It works exposed reef and surge-swept rock rather than sheltered rubble, it takes larger and harder prey, and a big male develops a green head and a broad pale bar behind the gill cover that no small individual carries.

The blue spots are the constant. Every scale carries one, which on a dark body reads at a distance as a fine blue dusting, and it is the one mark that survives the enormous change in appearance between a juvenile, a female and a terminal male.

Like the rest of the family it starts female. Unlike most, the fish it turns into is big enough to hold ground on the reef front, which is the most physically demanding address available.

## Also known as

- **English:** bluespotted wrasse, Blue Spotted Tamarin Wrasse, Mauritius Green Wrasse
- **Arabic:** Muesy
- **Hebrew:** מרגנון כחול-פסים
- **French:** Labre à points bleus, Labre Bleu, Labre Constellé
- **German:** Diamant-Junker
- **Portuguese:** Bodião Pintalgado, Bodião-diamante
- **Czech:** kněžík modroskvrnný
- **Japanese:** ブチススキベラ, Buchi-susukibera, Buchisusukibera
- **Chinese:** 娘仔魚, 青威, 青斑阿南魚
- **Russian:** Двузубый губан
- **AF:** Blougespikkelde tamarin
- **CA:** Donzella diamant
- **DA:** Blåplettet gylte
- **DIV:** Dielahikkae
- **FIJ:** koli ni wai
- **MAH:** Alle
- **MAL:** Vayittukadiyan, വായിട്ടുക്കടിയന്, വൈട്ടുകദിയന്
- **MLG:** Varavarana
- **MSA:** Nuri bintik biru, Keling batik, Bayan
- **SMO:** Sugale-mafalaugutu
- **TAH:** po'ou
- **TGL:** Isdang bato, Bankilan, Bungat

## Scientific synonyms

- *Anampses caeruleopunclatus* Rüppell, 1829
- *Anampses chlorostigma* Valenciennes, 1840
- *Anampses coeruleopunctatus* Rüppell, 1829
- *Anampses diadematus* Rüppell, 1835
- *Anampses lineolatus* Bennett, 1836
- *Anampses pulcher* Regan, 1913
- *Anampses rubroviridis* Liénard, 1891
- *Anampses taeniatus* Liénard, 1891
- *Anampses tinkhami* Fowler, 1946
- *Anampses viridis* Valenciennes, 1840

## Range

Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/bluespotted-wrasse)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*